Large brand and name building companies are paid large amounts of money ($1 million or more in some cases) to create winning brand names. They will tell everyone that the money is being well spent. This is what they won’t tell you.
you can do it yourself
Most of the world’s best-known brands were not created by brand identity firms, but by people who work in the companies behind those famous names. Let me give you some examples. Google, Kinkos, YouTube, Nike and Starbucks were named by the founders of the companies. The truth is, you don’t need a name guru. With a little inspiration and a little luck, you can create a great name of your own. So give it a try. If you come up short, you can always hire a professional.
There are no secret syllables
Many name companies make it sound like they hold the keys to a secret code that will make their customers do their bidding the moment they hear your new brand name. They talk about the mysterious methodology that bears their names, relying on all kinds of linguistic voodoo such as morphemes, phonemes, obstruents, sonorants, and concatenated prefixes. Is all this gibberish real? Not precisely. There are no secret sounds or syllables. Creating effective and memorable brand names requires imagination and a flair for language, not a secret handshake.
Cultural tests are overrated
We’ve all heard the story of how the Chevy Nova was an abysmal flop in Latin America because “no va” means “no go” in Spanish. Great story – except it’s not true. The fact is that the Nova met or exceeded sales projections in every Spanish-speaking country in which it was sold. Which brings me to the emphasis branding companies place on “cultural fit” testing. For the most part, comprehensive foreign language tests do little more than increase your bill. Use a little common sense. If the name is appropriate in English, it will most likely be fine abroad.
We sold that name before
Naming companies and branding firms generate thousands of names each year for their clients. Many of these customers sell similar products with similar features and benefits. As a result, many names appear again and again among the list of options that the naming pros compile. This is to be expected and, at first glance, not a bad thing. The downside is that your naming company doesn’t dig into your individual naming project and go to great lengths to create names that are truly unique to your brand, your product, and your target audience.
Getting a trademark is your problem
Some are surprised that corporate identity firms don’t guarantee that the expensive names they create are necessarily available for trademarking. Most will do a preliminary trademark search to rule out obvious conflicts. But your naming firm is not an intellectual property law firm. To get your new brand registered, you will need a good lawyer. Some will say that you can do it yourself. But in my humble (non-legal) opinion, trademark matters are best left to lawyers.